The Mormon Church Is Leading the Fight Against Gay Marriage in California

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



The Mormon Church Is Leading the Fight Against Gay Marriage in California

By Ray Ring, High Country News. Posted October 22, 2008.

California's Prop. 8 has exploded into an expensive, extensive battle between religious conservatives and gay rights advocates.



REXBURG, IDAHO -- America's Family Community." That's the motto of this Mormon college town, displayed on street-side monuments and in tall letters on the movie-theater marquee. Apparently, it's a formula for success. Rexburg thrives on a burst of construction and population growth. More than 30,000 residents occupy a grid of wide, orderly streets, amid vast potato fields that unfurl toward the majestic Teton Peaks. Plenty of Rexburg parents, following the Mormon prescription for big families, have six or seven children. One guy tells me his next-door neighbors have 13 children, and a family on the other side has 16. The newly expanded hospital maternity unit is already crowded with new babies. If Rexburg is any indication, Mormons are taking over the world.

They certainly run this town. An estimated 97 percent of the locals belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- making Rexburg possibly the most Mormon of all towns. The brilliant white-stone 57,000-square-foot Mormon temple, opened eight months ago, looms on a hilltop, glowing day and night; intense floodlights make Mormon temples the brightest objects in the Western nights. The college that sprawls beside the temple -- Brigham Young University-Idaho -- now boasts an annual enrollment of 21,000 students, more than double what it had eight years ago.

Mormon mores -- some written into local laws -- permeate the community. Rexburg has no real saloon and no supply of hard liquor; only four restaurants are licensed to serve beer or wine. There is only one coffee shop, and it keeps up with the meager caffeine demand by brewing each cup individually. When I cruise town on a pleasant Saturday night in mid-September, the hottest action comes down in a bowling alley: Balls crash down all 16 lanes while the spinning pins and the bowlers' teeth glow even whiter under the ultraviolet lighting.

But something louder and bigger draws me to Rexburg: the religious culture wars, which heat up every election season. Prophets who run the Mormon Church -- the church president, his top counselors and a dozen top apostles, based in the headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah -- encourage all Mormons to be active in politics. The prophets are said to be relaying the word of God, and while they generally don't endorse candidates, they take stands on issues such as abortion and homosexuality. As a result, most Mormons vote very Republican. In the last presidential election, nearly 92 percent of the votes in Madison County (Rexburg is the county seat) went to George W. Bush -- securing Rexburg yet another title: the nation's most Republican town. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/sex/103824/the_mormon_church_is_leading_the_fight_against_gay_marriage_in_california/

[still_one]

1. So is the Catholic Church through the Knights of Columbus /nt

[Poseidan]

2. puzzling...

Is the Mormon church unaware of something called the 'Separation of Church and State'? Maybe someone should inform them?

[aquart]

4. Not in their state.

[bad_robbie]

6. It's a get-out-the-vote campaign

Get members of anti-gay religions like Mormonism and Catholicism and Southern Baptism to go to the polls in CA and vote against "teh ghays". It's assumed that they're also Repubs, so they cast their votes for Gramps. Otherwise, those folks might stay home on election, since CA would go blue anyway.

[Faygo Kid]

3. Cult..

Sorry, that's how I see it. I don't buy the "angel Moroni" and I am very scared of their reach and influence, particularly as far right as they are. That's not religion. That's fascism.

[snake in the grass]

9. Not to defend Mormons, but...

...they are just as much a religion as the rest of the Christian subsets, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Scientology, FSM, or anything else the human brain can create. All of these groups live and worship according to a doctrine written by mortals but attributed to an imaginary being. As for fascism, check out Opus Dei. The founder of this inhuman group, Josemaría Escrivá, was a big supporter of General Franco and yet he was canonized in 2002.

All religions scare me when they strive for political clout because they are based on a delusion which, sooner or later, will conflict with reality.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Something naughty deleted.

[Doodler71]

7. The Mormon church... the conerstone of multiple partner marriages

(I know they don't *officially* condone it anymore)

But given their history, I'd think they would be a bit more careful throwing all those stones in glass temples.

[VPStoltz]

8. And it's too bad...

Were they to openly support it, they could get some appreciative gays to design a new line of the secret undergarments for them. I'm sure they need updating after all these year.